Sunken light for airplane fields



Patented Apr; e12, y1932A PATENT-OFFICE THOMAS J'. ROGERS, 0F MINNEAPULIS, MINNESOTA SUNKN LIGHT FOR AIBPLANE AIEIIEJIIIJJS .Application 1edu1y 5, 1929. Serial No. 376,025.

' Myinvention relates to sunken lights for L airp a ne fields, and has for itsobject to provide lights forv air fields of such a character 4that they will be maintained below the level of th ground and will reliect' their beams up'- wardly. Rows of such lights may satisfactorily be employed to produce the delimitatior )f air lanes of use in making landings in accordance with the wind direction. `The method of constructing said. air lanes and of lighting the air field sov that only the lanes lighting in the wind will be shown, is the subject of a cao-pending application.' i

It is vthe Aobjectiof the presentinvention to provide a simple and eiiicient construction whereby the submerged or sunken lights are properly housed and protected and are posi- Y tioned so as to give a maximum beam eect .upwardly ,or visibility from an approaching airplane in the air, and which are perfectly protected fromweather conditions, and also from the possibility of injury by' reason of landing airplanes passing over said lights.

The full objects `and advantages of my invention will appear in connection with the detailed description thereof, and the novel features thereof are more particularly pointed out in the claims.

In ,the draWings,-

Fig. lis a side sectional elevation .of one of my sunken lights. Fig..2 is a sectional plan of the part shown in Fig.1 on line 2-2 of Fig. 1 viewed in the direction ofthe arrows.

A pit 10 is provided sunk into the ground 11, said pit being lined with a suitable casing 12 which may be made of concrete or any material providing the requisite strength, and which Will prevent ingress of water. The casing 12 will preferably be provided with a top lip 13 extending a short distance beyond the edge of the pit 10. Or, if it is desired to place a number of said lights quite close together, the lips 13 of the pits may be united to provide a continuous strengthening effect. A steel iange member 14 is cast into the concrete or other material forming the casing 12. Also, a multiplicity of bolts l5 are cast in said concrete, as shown, with'their threaded ends 17 projecting to near the surface thereof, said bolts passing through the bottom plate of the reinforcing frames 14. A lens18 is carried by a lens frame formed of two encircling pieces 19, 20 which jointly form a recess 21 into which flanges 22 of the lens 18 project. kA space 23 between said flanges in filled .55' with water-proofing packing, as indicated at 24. Tapped holes 25 are formed in the glass member 18 for receiving threaded rods which may be employed to assist in handling the member 18. The top frame members are held against the bottom members and the whole frame' assembled upon the plates 14 by means of nuts 26 on the threaded ends of bolts 15. The lens 18 Will be of a tough, strong, unbreakable type of glass. It may be either refracting or non-refracting, and maybe colored as desired.

Inside of the space 27,in the casing 12, is positioned a semispherical holder 28, which maybe formed with an inner reflecting surface. The member 28 is provided with liange ortions 43 secured to the frame members 19 y short screws 44. Upon the holder 28 are mounted a series of light sockets 29 which are adapted to receive and hold the electric light bulbs 30. The sockets 29 are connected by wiring 31 With a coil of said wire 32 mounted upon a spool 42-mountedupon a bracket member 33 carried by the casing 12,

which, in turn, is connected by wiring 34 80 witha current supply cable housed in a pipe 35 running to a source of current supply. Preferably the lights in the holder 28 will be positioned as indicated in Fig. 1 in such relation in reference to the reflector on the inlside of the casing 28 that a solid beam will be transmitted through the glass lens or protector 18.

The advantages of my invention will be clear from the description thereof. By unscrewing the nuts 26 the frame carrying the holder 28 and lights may be withdrawn from the space 27 and the lights got at for renewing the bulbs. At the same time, when the fram'eis in position within said space the 95 bulbs are held so as to give a broad, strong beam of light upwardly, and particularly so as to show a clearly-outlined bright spot on the surface of the` ground. This bright spot readily marks out the landing spaces and at the same time will be so protected as to form no impediment to the landin of airplanes which canrun directl out injury either to ights or airplane.

1. A sunken light construction comprising a pit, a lining of concrete for said pit, a metal fiange member set into seid lining at the top of the pit, bolts 'set into said lining and projecting up through the bottom plato y of said flange memlsr, two encircling members super nosed upon each other and resting i upon said ttom plate, said members jointly forming an inwardly disposed encirclin recess, a glass plate having its margin hel in said recess, said bolts passin through said encircling members, nuts Kon tie Dupper ends i nuts on the upper ends of said oi'- said bo1tsand a source of light in said pit. a

2. A sunken light construction comprising a pit, a lining o concreto for said pit, bolts set into said lining and projecting upwardly at the upper portion thereof, two encircling.

members superposed upon each other and positioned near the up )or portion of said lining, said members 'oint disposed encircling recess, a glass plate having its margin held in said recess, said bolts passing through said encircling members, olts, and a source of li ht in said pit.

8. A sun en light construction comprising `a pit, a casing for said pit, two encircling members supe osed upon eachother and positioned near't 1e upper 'portion of said casing, said members respectively having upper and lower anges which extend inwardly to form n recess, a glass plate having its margin held in said recess, means for holding said encircling members in )lace on said casing, said glass plate having iolcs' tapped therein near its margin for use in handling the plate, said holes being covered by said upper flange when the device is assembled, and a source of light in said pit.'

In testimony whercoiI hereunto ailixlmy' signature.

` THOMAS ROGERS 1,ens,sa1

over t e lights withy forming an inwardly A 

